Mobile World Congress survey: IoT and mobile payments ‘biggest business opportunities’ for 2017

The Internet of Things (IoT) is seen as the biggest business opportunity of 2017 by nearly half of visitors and exhibitors at Mobile World Congress surveyed by the GSMA (48.2%), followed by mobile payments (14.5%) and artificial intelligence (14%).

“39.2% of respondents said the mobile operators’ role should be to support banks and financial institutions, while 34.5% said operators are trusted payment providers in their own right,” Mobile World Daily reports.

Ten percent of those surveyed said that operators “shouldn’t have a role” in mobile payments, however, with brands such as Apple “better placed” than operators.

In terms of IoT opportunities, the survey highlighted the “opportunity for mobile operators to play a greater role in the IoT value chain than simply providing the connectivity”.